Friday, June 20 1550

While stopping for the night between Bozen and Trient, the lads Antonio and Giuseppe are bragging about their abilities, and Marx and Walther omit certain relevant details when regaling the crowd with tales of their recent encounter with the bugbears.

This attracts the attention of Marcus, who offers them a piece of the action in a bit of “hard work” clearing off some land for his employer, who Marcus insisted remained nameless. They accept, and head out just as the sun begins to light the valley. As they march, they break off from the main road during the day and take a side road behind some hills, climbing into the mountains later in the afternoon. They make camp behind a ridge and begin drawing up plans for an early morning attack.

They move out before the next sunrise, surrounding the camp outside of a recently opened silver mine. As the first light breaks through the trees, Marcus calls for an orderly surrender from the sleeping camp. The officer in charge defies him in the name of the Duke who had given them permission to mine this land. With that, Marcus and his men charge the camp; Marx, Walther, Antonio and Giuseppe following their lead. The battle is brutal, with most of the miners armed with clubs and without armor, but finally four armored guards with real weapons emerge from the largest tent. Seeing the destruction, the captain of the camp offers surrender. Marcus growls, “You had your chance.” He and his men press on and slay the remaining miners and guards.

At the end of the day, the party walks away from the battleground with several bags of coin and gems, and a bit of trepidation about the possible consequences of their actions…

Wednesday, June 18, 1550

Marx and Tomas return to Dachau as soon as possible. They meet up again with Walther, regaling him of the harrowing tale of Tomas’s rush to and from Dachau to get the money to pay the clerics to cure the disease that Marx got, and the agonizing wait for a sufficiently powerful cleric to come to Munich.

At the end of May (and the end of the free room and board at the Pig), the party decides to make it’s way south to Rome, to see what trouble they might stir up there.

The trip is largely uneventful (though beautiful) through the alps. Until, that is, they are making their way through a pass down to Bozen, a small group of hairy, burly, humanoids rushes down from the rocky peaks and attacks the small group of wagons that the party happened to be passing at that moment.

The Bugbears (as the party will later learn upon making inquiry in Bozen) open with a volley of javelins, and then half their number close with Marx and Walther, as well as the two guards the wagons had with them. It quickly becomes apparent that these raiders are too much for the caravan guards and the party, and they break ranks, leaving the wagons (and horses harnessed to the wagons) to the depredations of the bugbears.

Once in Bozen the party takes a rest from it’s harrowing travels to heal, resupply, and hire some extra muscle. A few days of advertising they decide to hire Antonio and Giuseppe, a pair of local bruisers looking to get out of town and willing to take 15 gp a month to carry a sword.

Tuesday, May 27, 1550

The lads set off early Tuesday morning from the Whistling Plowboy, heading towards Landshut. An hour on the highway and they spot a ruined church tower from the road. They head towards it, and after breaking through the treeline see an overgrown churchyard and a burned out stone church.

They approach carefully, and two nasty ghouls claw their way up out of the ground, snarling and hungry. Marx approaches and smashes on in the skull, toppling it over, destroyed. Then Tomas closes with the other, smashing its ribs with his spiked club. Another ghoul claws its way up out of the ground while Tomas dodges the gnashing teeth and grasping claws of the undead terror in front of him. The two ghouls are rather easily dispatched, however, and they are dragged away from the cracked headstones, and Marx sets to work extracting the hearts of the gray-skinned monsters.

As Marx is elbow deep in the second ghoul, Tomas sidles back toward the cemetery, awakening two more gnashing gray ghouls, who have only a bit more luck than their erstwhile compatriots, one of them landing a bite on Tomas’s shoulder before being dispatched. Tomas drags his prizes over to Marx for processing, and then sits down against the wall of the church to rest himself.

They bundle up the extracted hearts in a piece of linen cut from Tomas’s tent and make their way to Landshut. It is a small town, without a market license and barely a wall, but it is hospitable and well kept, the castle looking down majestically from atop the hill. However, Marx is feeling rather ill by the time they have arranged for accommodations in the inn. Headache, a bit shaky, breath hot in his throat. So the pair head for the cathedral.

Inside they are interviewed by an older priest, white of hair, who seems quite concerned about their encounter with a ghoul as they were setting up camp in a meadow. He asks them to stay in the church’s medical hall for a day so that if they have indeed caught ghoul fever they might not spread it to the citizens of the town.

By the next morning, it is clear that Marx has fallen grievously ill. He cannot even sit up in bed, and can hardly speak. Tomas takes his leave as soon as he is able, so that he can get the hearts back to Dachau, collect their bounty, and return with the tithe so a cleric from Munich may be fetched. It is an agonizing week for Marx, attended by one or two brothers during his illness. They do all they can for him, but sadly, it is not much comfort to him. At last Tomas returns, and the cleric is sent for. Four days later he arrives, and invoking the healing power of Saint Raphael the Archangel and the mercy of the Eternal Virgin, Marx is cured of his disease. However, it is more than a week before he feels himself back to his previous strength. On the morning of Tuesday, May 27, he feels himself quite well enough to travel once again.

The Whistling Plowboy, Tuesday, May 6, 1550

Such is the life of an adventurer: bothering a priest as he is about to begin a Saturday morning Mass, going to bed without supper in an old woman’s hovel with a promise to fix her roof in the morning, nearly drowning in a river while trying to cross, and then being attacked by bandits in the middle of the night.

How did they get here? Well…

Saturday morning Marx and Tomas decide they need some more information to track down these ghouls to collect the bounty on their hearts. So they wander across the plaza to the cathedral. The door is unlocked, and there are only a few folks scattered around the pews, while a priestly figure does something with the candles up front. Marx marches up to the man and asks what information he might have about abandoned graveyards. The priest turns around and glares, while Marx melts backwards and finds a seat next to the half-orc in the back row. Tomas promptly scoots a few seats away.

After the service, the priest points them in the direction of Landshut, where 50 years ago many villages were destroyed in a war, and warns them to stay on the road, lest they stumble onto a nest of the foul mockeries.

The pair set out for Munich, after briefly considering purchasing horses. (They decide against this due to a lack of funds) Taking lunch at a roadside inn, they arrive outside the walls of Munich just as dark is beginning to come on. A long line of carts and wagons waits to pay the fee to enter the city in preparation for market day tomorrow. The pair decides to skip the fee and skirt the wall, asking one of the carters in the line if there was a river crossing nearby so they wouldn’t have to pay to enter the city. He said there might be one a little ways downstream, though he himself had never taken it.

They head that direction, walking down the bank of the river for nearly an hour before they come upon a close collection of small cottages near a tended grove of trees, just beginning to send out new leaves. They knock at one of the cottages, and the grubby tenant pokes his face out, wondering at the sight of the strange pair of travelers. Asking about lodgings, he asks if they have any food. Not having any, he points them towards Old Hilda’s cottage, the could stay there if they promised to fix her roof in the morning.

Hilda, being not entirely present, asks them repeatedly if they are there to see her granddaughter, Agatha. She’s gone off just now, but she’ll be back soon. Gone into town to get some things, she has, but she’ll be back presently. The two attempt to keep watch through the night, but soon fall asleep. In the morning, they are given a small breakfast by Hilda, who points out the weak places in her roof. The rest of the morning and first part of the afternoon is spent gathering thatch (which is not in great abundance at the moment) and repairing the roof. With the task completed Hilda gives them a light lunch, and they are on their way again, another half an hour downstream to the ford.

They find not much at the widening of the river, 10 feet from either bank is a stout post driven into the ground, a thick coil of rope tied to the post on the far bank. The water is quite swift, swollen with spring snowmelt from the Alps. Tomas ties one end of his own rope to the post on the near bank and begins to wade across. It drops to about waist depth, when he steps in a hole and loses his footing, splashing into the water and being swept downstream. Fortunately, Marx is able to pull him back to the shallows before he loses any of his gear. He tries again, and again is swept off his feet by the current. Marx decides he ought to try, and makes it across without any problem. He ties the two ropes together, and Tomas begins once again to make his way across, using the tightened ropes as a handhold. He slips again, but manages to hold onto the packs and the rope, and finally reaches the far bank.

At this point all of their gear is soaked, so they decide to set up camp and start a fire to dry out their clothes. They still do not have any food, and attempt to pass a restless night in the (still somewhat damp) tent.

While Tomas is on watch, however, he hears some low whispers and the jingle of buckles from the far side of the tent. Giving a shout, he leaps to his feet as a pair of figures run away, carrying a pack that they most certainly did not bring with them. Tomas gives chase while Marx rouses himself, bashing the one carrying the pack a tremendous blow with his spiked club. While one thief is sent reeling, the other dives into the underbrush to hide. Tomas swings his club through the shrubberies, and the hidden bandit again takes to his feet, running as fast as he can. Marx knocks out the first robber while Tomas chases the other, smashing him into the ground as well. The two are tied up and stripped of boots and weapons and left until the morning. Marx falls asleep again after only an hour of watching.

They awake feeling a bit faint at morning’s light, untie the still unconscious bandits, leaving them by the river’s side, and heading up to the road they continue on their way.

Finally they come to a proper roadside inn and have a sizable lunch to sate their rather tremendous appetites. With Landshut about ten hours away and it being about midday, they decide to walk up the road and hopefully find another inn before night falls.

They manage to make it to the Whistling Plowboy in time for dinner, which will bring us up to the morning of Tuesday, May 6.

Dachau, Friday May 2, 1550

Marx, Walther and Tomas began the day discontented with the slow roll of the days, and endeavored to expand their horizons in a hopefully lucrative and exciting way. The three of them went separate directions in search of fulfillment. Walther went searching for urchins, hoping for some inside information on any petty crime rings that might be operating in the city. After a few coppers and a silver convinced a lad to talk, he came away with the name “Arne the Claw”, who has apparently been causing the lad’s father some measure of grief.

Marx went looking for someone to perhaps instruct him in the proper handling of horses. He was unable to find someone with enough time or space to do so within the city’s walls, however. Perhaps there might be opportunity outside the walls of the city where people are less busy, and more free to roam.

Tomas stumbled upon a foreign soldier’s bar. It looked a rougher place than his current lodging, the Pig, but it did have some interesting looking countrymen of his, taking advantage of the hearth hospitality of the place. He purchased them some beereakfast, and invited them to the Pig for entertainment later that evening. As he was speaking to the gentleorcs, a cloaked man walked in with a pair of earthenware jugs, delivered them to the bartender, and was paid a sizable amount of gold. Tomas, not being one to let an opportunity slip by, followed the man out of the pub, and before long was cornered with a knife pointed at his throat. He revealed that the job that he had just quit involved ghouls somehow, and that a friend of his had lost an arm in the business. e

All three meeting back at the Pig for lunch, discussed their options. A possible connection was made between “Arne the Claw” and Dortmund who had lost an arm, and the party resolved to ask Willem (the barkeep at the Gaspode) about the contents of the jar. Willem revealed that he had been contacted by a wizard named Nikolaus Bausch to act as a collection point for ghoul’s hearts. He pays 75 gp per heart delivered, and is paid a bit more by Nikolaus to collect them.

The group then went to the Mage’s Guildhall to see Herr Bausch, to hopefully obtain some information as to where ghouls might be found. They were able to make an appointment for the Saturday after next, the 10th of May at 2:00. Marx prevented Walther from causing himself injury, and they returned to the Pig once again to talk and take supper. Walther spoke with an acolyte from the cathedral who had stopped in for dinner, and learned that ghouls do not appear but in desecrated burial sites, such as forgotten battlefields or abandoned graveyards. But, he also warned, their very touch can freeze a man in his tracks.

A bit later, a swarthy, filthy pair of half-orcs wander into the Pig. They head for the bar, but Tomas heads them off and seats them at a table in one corner. He brings them ales, and then they begin a rousing conversation, touching on various subjects such as the relative beauty of various ladies in the inn, the prices of drinks, Tomas’s striking good looks, and the pointiness of Marx’s ears. They are eventually convinced to leave, and sing the health of the Pig and it’s denizens as they sway down the street.

Breakfast is lighter for Tomas the next morning than for Walther and Marx.

Dachau Campaign, Friday, May 2, 1550

With things looking dire for those aboard Ran’s Wave, the Canterbury campaign was tabled for a bit. However, a new adventuring party was founded in the city of Dachau, in the Palatinate of Upper Bavaria. Assembled thus far are Marx Hosenburg, a half-elf assassin, and Walther Einzbern, a halfling gypsy sorcerer. They have been granted room and board at The Pig through the end of the month in return for spreading news of the inn’s fine quality to the burghers of the city. They await a few more members of the company there.

July 3 - July 9, 1550

After defeating the ghouls, the party sails through Nearside and Uddevalla, making their way down the coast to Gothenburg. They spend a day there to resupply, then set the sails to go further south towards Copenhagen. A favorable wind brings them within hours of the straight of Copenhagen when they spy a strange spire rising up out of the sea.

The top of the stone spire breaks off as they watch, falling into the sea. Moments later, a slime-covered stone creature launches itself up out of the water into Leon, knocking him back onto the rail. Freyja and Melker close in on it, but it unleashes its fury upon Freyja, staggering her back as well. Then Griswold summons an elemental from the depths, while Risa and Melker’s men pelt it with attacks magical and mundane. Finally, Griswold smashes the creature to the deck, finishing it off.

Fear and Loathing in Lake Vanem

So the party escorts the captured bandits to the trade city of Karlstad, ostensibly to stand trial. They bring the wayward Catholics to the Merchant’s Guildhall, and are introduced to their reward: Melker Holstrom, a guild agent/translator who will secure tarriff-free access to all cities in Sweden. He comes with a small personal bodyguard of 4 men-at-arms. The party spends the day shopping, and put the bandits up in a private room at the inn.

In a surprising twist, Freyja takes it upon herself to borrow a Latin Bible, and swears the bandits off of thievery, and allows them to escape during the night. After Hilde regales the patron of the inn with tales of derring-do, a slight female elf approaches Freyja and all but swears fealty to her, offering the use of her sloop for as long as she should desire it. Siezing the opportunity, the group finds their guild agent and sets sail that evening as the tide goes out, neatly avoiding any pointed questions that might have arisen the next day at the trial of the bandits.

They sail down Lake Vanem towards Uddevalla.

The second day (the wind being against them), as the sun is setting scratching noises are heard under the hull. Preparing for trouble, the party is relatively unsurprised when a gang of pallid, rubbery skinned humanoids swarm the deck. The ghouls meet with some initial success, paralyzing three of the now enlarged party and attempting to drag them down to the depths, the party succeeds in driving them back into the dark waters of the lake.

A summary of the past few months

Hokay, it’s been a while since we’ve had an update to ye olde Adventure Logge, so here’s the last four months in a nutshell:

After discovering their uncle Eirik is being held for unpaid debts in the city of Oslo, the party receives a distress Sending from Stanislas Galopin about a dragon’s lair at Hogevarde Mountain. They gear up, head out, find a henge on top of the mountain, defeat a necromantic sorceress, discover a Huge White Dragon, and seven captured German stonemasons.

They then return to Oslo (sending the Germans back home safely), pick up a ballista, and then go troll hunting in the mountains. They are successful in their hunt, find some gems, and return once again to Oslo.

Whereupon they have a meeting with the Lord of Oslo to discuss the release of their uncle. His grace is unwilling to take any less than the full amount owed, due to his lascivious nature and the grudge he holds against the ladies’ grandfather for stealing away the beautiful elf he coveted for his own.

Then the ladies are advised by Eirik to leave town, and soon, for the lord’s wrath may soon fall upon them and compel them to stay in the castle as permanent residents. Looking for an opportunity away from Oslo, the party hears of increased bandit activity along the land route to Stockholm, the reward for dealing with such is junior membership in the trading guilds, which means lowered tolls and fees for entering cities where the guilds have a presence.

So they set off, and manage to get themselves attacked by the bandits. But Freyja puts them to sleep with some sleeping powder she purchased, and they think they have the situation well in hand. But then, in the third watch of the night, Klaus is on guard and is attacked by a mountain of a man and a mysterious source of high-velocity stones. Giving a shout, the human mountain is soon felled by Klaus, Freyja, and Griswold, and the leader of the gang threatened into calling off the other.

He then curses the “damned Lutheran heretics,” which sends Freyja into a cold rage. She challenges him to single combat, which he gladly accepts.

Freyja soon realizes that bringing a dagger to a battle-axe fight is a bad idea, and retreats for her bow. The tide of battle soon turns, and Freyja stands victorious.

When next we meet our intrepid band, it will be the morning of Sunday, July 25, 1550.

The first step of a journey

And so, after two more days of travel and a (surprisingly) quite rest of the journey (except of course for the matter of a small break-in in Mos), the party has finally made it to Oslo! Hooray! They now prepare for the next leg of their journey, the arduous trek across Sweden, and then north to the land of the Elves. The next several days are spent in preparation, purchasing supplies, working out the route, hiring a guide, and resting up and researching for the trip.

While in Oslo, a message arrived for the two ladies, a plea for help from their supposed uncle, Eirik. He has been in debtor’s prison for several years, since his father’s passing, due to a large debt owed to the Lord of Oslo, Jon Nilsson Tordenstjerne from a failed investment. There exists apparently some bad blood between Jon and the elves.

For review, a quick geaneology:

Frejya, Hildegaard, and their brother James are the children of Henry, a wealthy (human) English landowner and his wife Brita, an elf from Norway. Brita and her brother Eirik and the two children of Haakon and Eva, both elves from way up north.

Please note that this will be a hard journey, and you have already noticed some of your gear has started to look a little worn. It may be a good idea to stock up on extras/replacements before you head out. I will send out an email soon with specifics. Please take the time to read it and get prepared before we meet again so we can start on the next leg of your journey right away.

After burning the dead and commending their souls to whatever pagan afterlife Griswold sent them to, the party broke camp and was underway again shortly after lunch. They traveled for a few hours, but then found the cart track blocked by a recently felled tree. An invisible voice demanded that they leave all their foodstuffs and they would be allowed to keep their horses.

Freyja played her impertinent card and was rewarded with an arrow aimed at her mount. Battle ensued. It went poorly for the bandits, which were most likely the remains of the band that attacked the party the night previous. Morelli trampled one bandit to death and then managed to knife another one after he stunned himself jumping out of the tree trying to escape. The leader was left alive after he begged for mercy.

Continuing on, the party then ran across an ogre, but it missed any of the horses when it threw a spear the size of a tree, so they were able to escape on horseback quite easily. Riding again for some time, they found another spot good for camping in and prepared to stop for the night.

Eine Kleine Nachtdiebischen

Though Morelli’s warhorse shied at first, the party managed to escape from the beast without further injury to themselves or their horses. As an added bonus, they were able to make it to the grand town of Uddevalla (population 712) by nightfall and take refuge in the only inn at the city. After purchasing just enough supplies, the party set off the next morning on the three day trek to Fredrikstad.

Round about 4:00 in the afternoon, the party then came across a yellow lizard-like creature sunning itself on a large rock in the clearing of the forest. Morelli dismounted to approach the creature, but made a sufficient quantity of noise to wake the thing, which promptly jumped up, unfolded its wings, and shouted, “Trespassers!”

A tense session of negotiation followed, during which it was agreed that the party would pay a toll of 3 gold coins per person to travel through the domain of the small bronze dragon, and that further parley shall be made with the “dragon council” if Morelli’s gift (of the magical battleaxe) proved sufficient. The dragon would also ask permission of the council to accompany the party (Morelli the gnome in particular) beyond the borders of his realm. After these negotiations, the dragon flew off with the collected toll.

The party then continued on unmolested until the evening, when they found a sheltered place out of the wind to make camp. The first watches passed uneventfully, but then it was noted that there were persons sneaking up on the group in the dark. Hilde made great use of Dancing Lights to illumine the brigands, and the party managed to beat them back into the darkness.

Deciding they want to keep their horses, the party sought passage on a ship from Aalborg. They found a Norwegian captain willing to drop them off in Gothenburg for only 1 gp per head per day. The passage took three days, due to unfavorable winds, leaving them half of Monday to kill in Gothenburg before setting out north. The ladies window shop, the dwarf drinks, and the gnome realizes he speaks neither Swedish, Norwegian, or German, and accompanies the dwarf.

The next morning they all set out early, so as to arrive in the next city by dark. However, in a small village along the way, they witness a crowd of villagers rather agitated in the center of the village. The principle agitator was a young man, broad of shoulder and blonde of hair, shouting about a kidnapped girl and a monster. Hilde took the lead and rode through the crowd up to the man, and such was her beauty that he was briefly struck mute, and he nearly forgot what he had roused the rabble about.

After a brief discussion in the poor public house, the details of the case were made somewhat clearer. The girl, Briggite by name, had wandered into the woods the day prior, and had been taken by the ravening beast. Her father, apparently having failed to rescue her came into town raving mad just this morning, and was promptly sent north to the cathedral so that the brothers might care for him. Meanwhile, Gundriksen, the village leader, called the men of the village in from the fields to form a band to take the girl back from the Beast by force.

Questioning the authority of the self-proclaimed village chief, Frejya asked for a few minutes alone to discuss with the party.

Since the party had horses, they rode on ahead of the mob, who had finished gathering torches and pitchforks by now, and beat them by two hours to the “ruined castle.” Opening the lock on the gate, they rode into the grounds of the castle, which, while overgrown, was only suffering from a single collapsed tower.

The door to the keep was barred, but knocking and shouting attracted the attention of the lonely resident, who lurked above until he was noticed. Then the party scaled the wall of the castle, and asked to speak with the girl, who the Beast claimed was present of her own free will. He grudgingly assented, and returned with her shortly. She begged them to go, as she had willingly taken her father’s place as he had been caught poaching on the beast’s lands. Again Freyja demanded proof of rightful authority, which rankled the Beast, who withdrew the girl and shut the door.

Not content with leaving the girl to her unwilling willing imprisonment, Griswold began to beat down the barred door. The beast had evidently not gone far, for he immediately threw open the door and raked his terrible claw down the dwarf’s mailed front, sending him backwards, stunned for a brief moment. Then Freyja sent an arrow at the Beast, who endeavored to close the door again on the party. When Briggite tried to help him, again imploring the party to leave them, Freyja grabbed her and pulled her into the room. Then the Beast responded by grabbing both the women and trying to wrestle them through the door. But the sturdy dwarf cast a Doom upon the Beast, and he dropped Freyja in the doorway. Once again the Beast tried to close the door between him and the party, but Freyja refused to yield, and kicked back as the Beast tried to boot her into the room. Then the dwarf grew cloudy in his visage and flexed his muscles with rage and charged at the Beast, his mighty maul held high.

Alas, though, for as the hammer was brought to bear, the Beast twisted in desperation and the blow fell full upon the girl in his arms, silencing forever her pleas for peace. Then the Beast gave a mighty bellow and raked at the dwarf with both his claws, who then fled with his companions through the window, jumping to the stone steps below. Quickly they ran to the gate and mounted their horses to ride off as the Beast burst through the castle door with another mighty roar, ready to give chase.

Of Mercers and Mages

Having resolved to go into Arhus to find the erstwhile parent of the boy Arne, the party makes short work of finding Carter street, and asking around find Yosef drunk in the “Greased Axle” public house. Hilde and Freyja take the man out and promptly duck him in the horse trough. A dwarf, the only other patron in the pub at that time of day, follows to see what is to become of the man at the hands of the two beautiful ladies.

Concerned for the man’s well being, the dwarf (whose name is Griswold Windburn) objects to any ill-treatment of the man, but his pleas for mercy are ignored by the enraged Frejya, who orders hot coffee, which Hilde provides. Yosef suitably sobered (at least enough to roll his wheel down the street), they set off for the wagon. A supper of cold chicken is had by the party, and of dried beef by the dwarf, who followed as well to ensure no undue ill treatment befell the man.

They managed to return to Arhus and secure lodgings before full dark, and set off north once again in the morning.

Upon the road, they met a strange man, Stanislas Galopin, who was apparently following a newly appeared ley line in the sky. The mage was quite genial, and explained about his work, and about the strange appearance of the magical conduit in the sky. It was pointed roughly north-south.

Leaving Stanislas to his research, the party continued to Aalborg, reaching it with plenty of time to secure accommodations. The next morning they checked in at the Guild of Mages, and learned that Stanislas had made provision for them. The coordinator of the ley line surveyors had dinner with the party in the Guild’s dining hall, and explained that they still had very little idea where it could come from or go to, or what purpose it serves.

Morelli also had a meeting with one of the mages, the local dragon specialist, who was able to communicate the concept of some sort of disease that might infect and kill or transform heroes who spend time around a well-established dragon’s horde.

After resting up, selling off loot and resupplying, the party heads north once again. On the north side of Kolding the group was stopped by bandits looking to secure funds to aid a rebellion of Norway against the “Danish Oppressors.” Upon learning that the ladies were in fact Norwegian themselves (and partly elvish to boot), they were given a letter to deliver to a member of the resistance. Upon opening it while safely ensconced in their room in Vejle, they found it was addressed to them, and invited them to join the rebellion by meeting under a certain landmark on a certain date three weeks hence. The letter was burned.

Tuesday night otherwise was spent uneventfully in Vejle, and then the next afternoon, soon after passing through Horsens they met a brightly-colored vardoo driven by an enthusiastic Frenchman selling magical wares… or so he claimed. Nothing was purchased.

Then, a couple of hours later, the party came upon an apparently abandoned wagon filled with bolts of cloth. One of the wheels was broken, and it was soon discovered that a child of about ten was “guarding” the wagon, waiting for the return of his father. The father was described as great big, with black hair and a red nose. He has been absent since mid-morning. The party waited with the child for an hour, and are beginning to grow anxious.

The Caves Below

After discovering the apparent system of caves below the tomb of some forgotten hero, the party encountered thick-skinned, aggressive gray growling beasts who wield stone battleaxes. One was slain in the room with the pool, and another in the storage cave where he had run to after his axe broke in his hand.

Then, in the vine chamber, two more were slain, but not before sturdy Klaus took a punishing blow which destroyed his armor, but also broke the axe that struck him. Freyja then ran up and shot an arrow clean through the head of what was apparently their leader, for he had a shield strapped to his arm.

The one whose axe was broken had run off, deeper into the cave, and the hoots and growls of several more of the beasts are slowly increasing in volume from the corridor.

Quickly formulating a plan, the party takes up positions on either side of the tunnel entrance into the cavern. Soon a small horde of the gray, thick skinned cave dwellers rushes in to attack. Klaus and Morelli cut into them, but are quickly overwhelmed and pushed back. Freyja fires into the boilling mass and allows them down a bit. The beasts seem unaffected by Hilde’s magic, but Morelli falls back and begins pelting the creatures with arcane fire. Just in time too, as Klaus soon finds himself in dire straights.

Then the tide of battle begins to turn. One hulking menace drops his axe down the chasm lined with vines, another misses Klaus and slays his compatriot instead. One by one the grim foes are slain, but only at great cost. Morelli and Klaus both end the fight at 0 HP.

The group then decides to leave the cave below the tomb, head back to town to rest and heal. They resolve to finish exploring the cave as soon as possible tomorrow.